Rachel Reeves has confirmed she will have to raise taxes in the upcoming autumn budget despite certain Labour manifesto pledges.
In order to build the economy, she signalled that “difficult decisions” would be made to raise money.
Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor has accused Labour of plotting a “great tax betrayal” and claimed that “Labour were planning tax rises all along – they just didn’t have the courage to tell you”.
Writing on the Conservative Home website today, he said: “The statement by the Chancellor on Monday was an exercise designed to cover up the great tax betrayal coming in the Autumn Budget.
“This week they revealed how they are planning to get away with it. We will not let them.”
Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor has accused Labour of plotting a “great tax betrayal”.
GETTY
After Reeves announced she would have to raise taxes, Hunt labelled her decision as the “biggest betrayal in history” after Labour repeatedly refused to rule this out during the election campaign.
Speaking on the News Agents podcast on Tuesday. Reeves said: “I think that we will have to increase taxes in the Budget.
“We had in our manifesto a commitment to fiscal rules to balance day-to-day spending through tax receipts and, by the end of the forecast period, to get debt down as a share of GDP.
“Those are sensible fiscal rules to keep a grip of the public finances.
“We also made other commitments in our manifesto, not to increase National Insurance, VAT or income tax for the duration and we’ll stick with those.”
A Treasury spokesperson said: “As we said, there will be further difficult decisions on tax and spending at the Budget on October 30.
“The Chancellor has not committed to any tax rises not already in the manifesto and has committed to not increasing national insurance, VAT or income tax.”
The Government has already announced details of how it will add VAT (Value Added Tax) to private school fees at the standard rate of 20 per cent to fund 6,500 new teachers in England.
They have also scrapped some infrastructure projects and announced the winter fuel allowance for pensions would be means-tested, as part of a series of measures aimed at addressing a shortfall in the public finances.
Winter Fuel Payments are annual tax-free payments for older people to help cover the cost of living, namely with rising energy bills.
Households can get up to £300 from this support and Britons have been eligible if they were born on or before September 20, 1958.
However, the qualifying criteria have been changed in Reeves’ first intervention of handling the public finances.